86 year old French industrialist Serge Dassault attacked a parliamentary move to buy unmanned military aircraft from the United States, saying it would cost jobs and stifle France’s arms industry.
A French Senate committee voted last week to chop funding for Israeli Heron TP drones, which Dassault Aviation SA plans to adapt for use by France’s military in Afghanistan. It opted instead for the cheaper MQ-9 Reaper from General Atomics.
But Dassault, who sits in the French Senate as a member of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling conservative UMP party, said the decision to buy American would end up costing France more. “We proposed the Israeli drone to meet an obvious gap in drones today,” the 86-year-old head of the family group that includes Dassault Aviation SA told Public Senat TV.
“That is just while we wait for a French drone. If we buy an American one, well then everything is screwed up and we’ll spend more money, drive up unemployment and reduce exports – if that’s what you want, I don’t understand.”
Dassault Aviation is involved in a Franco-British effort together with BAE Systems Plc to develop a future generation called Telemos, while European aerospace group EADS is struggling to win support for its rival, Talarion.
The immediate row is over a stop-gap purchase needed to meet shorter-term requirements from mid-decade. The debate has already dragged on for two years.
The battle for drones funding has soured relations between EADS and the French government and put EADS directly at odds with Dassault Aviation in which it owns a 47 percent stake as a result of the complex history of French defence companies. EADS and Dassault are also involved in bitter competition to sell fighter aircraft to India and the Arab Gulf.
Dassault’s comments came as the French Senate prepared to vote on the 2012 French defence budget late on Monday. Funding must be discussed further by the lower National Assembly.
Source: Defence Web